To commemorate the great French pioneer Louis Bleriot, who made the first crossing of the English Channel by aeroplane on 25th July 1909, the Association Franҫaise des Ingénieurs et Techniciens de l'Aéronautique, better known as A.F.I.T.A., has instituted a series of lectures to be known as The Louis Bleriot Lectures. The Lecture is to be given annually and the intention is that it should be given alternately, in Paris and London, by an Englishman and a Frenchman.

The first Louis Bleriot Lecture was given in Paris on 12th May 1948, in a lecture hall attached to the Hotel George V, by Air Commodore F. R. Banks, C.B., O.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., M.I.Mech.E., F.I.Pet. It was attended by the President of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Dr. H. Roxbee Cox, D.I.C., F.R.Ae.S., F.I.Ae.S., Sir Frederick Handley Page, C.B.E., F.R.Ae.S., Past-President, the Secretary, Captain J. L. Pritchard, Hon.F.R.Ae.S., F.I.Ae.S., and by a number of members of the Society and of the Aircraft Industry.